Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Abg Johari warns opposition not to meddle in state’s affairs

Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg has given the
opposition a word of warning not to meddle in the state’s affairs. Describing the opposition as all talk, he chided them for trying to “teach Sarawak” a thing or two.

“Today (yesterday), we had an opposition leader trying to teach us.
Don’t try to teach us. You are like a frog hopping from one party to
another; hop, hop, hop,” he said at the launch of the state-level BN
Sarawak Youth machinery at Satok Sports Complex here yesterday.

It is believed that Abang Johari was referring to former Umno heavyweight Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim who has since joined DAP.

Zaid, who is also former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department
in charge of legal affairs and judicial reform, was recently in Kuching
as an invited speaker at DAP’s fund-raising dinner where he had called
on Sarawak and Sabah not to support Barisan Nasional (BN) for short-term
gain.

He had said that though Abang Johari had asked the people to give BN
their votes so that he could negotiate with Prime Minister Datuk Seri
Najib Tun Razak, the negotiation would not come to fruition because
Sarawak was afraid of Umno despite owning many parliamentary seats all
these years.

He also opined that Sabah and Sarawak would be making a huge mistake
by supporting Najib, given that “the whole world is laughing at us not
just because of 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad) but also how they
redraw the boundary” and that Sarawakians would realise that they had no
reason to support BN if they looked at the bigger picture and a lot
more issues that were affecting them.

Abang Johari stressed that Sarawak has its own performances and pride
and therefore the opposition should not try to teach Sarawakians.

“We have our dignity, we know what we are going to do. We can work
with Datuk Seri Najib; we can transform Sarawak and will transform
Malaysia. God willing, Sarawak will be the most developed state in 2030.

“We have the youths and we can all work together for the sake of our
future,” he exclaimed to roars of support from BN Youth members in
attendance.

Around 1,500 members from BN component parties Youth wings attended
the launch, which led Abang Johari to express how impressed he was with
the ‘sea of blue’ that welcomed him upon his arrival.

“From your chants of ‘Armada’, I am confident that BN will win big
this coming 14th general election (GE14). This ‘sea of blue’ will be the
one bulldozing its way through to give BN its huge win,” he emphasised,
and described the BN Youth machinery as the forerunner of the
coalition’s battle towards ensuring a huge victory this election.

As the state BN chairman, Abang Johari said he had no doubt that with
the support of everyone, BN Sarawak would be able to win at least 28
out the 31 parliamentary seats in Sarawak. With the BN Sarawak Youth
machinery now ready, he said it was a matter of time until Najib
“strikes the gong”.

“When our federal BN chairman (Najib) strikes the gong, we will go
all out and this time, we will try our best to wrest Bandar Kuching
(parliamentary seat) from the opposition.

“Together we stand; together we are united and we can get back all the lost seats to BN,” he exclaimed.

During the launch, he also announced Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar
Douglas Uggah Embas as the state BN machinery operations director for
GE14.

“I have instructed Uggah as our ‘Panglima’ to run our operations and
with the support of all BN Sarawak component party presidents, we will
form a strong team and wherever
our candidates are, we will work hard, give them our support and reap success from our hard-earned efforts.”